Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults use Facebook, but according to a Manta survey of more than 4,500 small business owners, 51 percent of small businesses don't have a business Facebook Page - numbers that likely don't bode well for website ownership either.
Of those small businesses that do have a Facebook business page, half believe the time they invest in Facebook is worth it (they have a positive return on investment). With ROI being difficult to track for enterprises large and small, it's a big area of opportunity for small businesses consultants to educate this group about tracking the time spent on social and calculating gains from the channel (read, "Baller on a Budget: Social Media Costs").
That said, the the top reason small business owners have a Facebook page for their business is to raise brand awareness, followed by acquiring new customers and generating new website traffic (according to Manta). Small business owners will also need to quickly understand that social media is as much of an outbound channel as an inbound one, with people turning to Facebook and Twitter (in particular) to get answers to customer service questions, quickly.
Small business owners (SBOs) not using a dedicated business page on Facebook, should know they can manage their presence on the network in as little as six hours a week if they follow this schedule.
